In present day, fans are no different than they were in 1915 with the first fan club. Fans enjoy this participatory culture we now call fandom. Fans today have found a place to belong just as they did all those years ago. There is camaraderie and a sense of family within most fandoms, and they… Continue reading Labors of Love and Why Fans Give to Crowdfunding Campaigns
Category: Participatory Culture
Firefly, Serenity and Exploitation
I would like to discuss a few case studies on exploitation, outside of crowdfunding with fandoms. The first will be about the movie Serenity created and directed by Joss Whedon in 2005. The movie was a sequel to the popular cult show Firefly (2002) also created and directed by Whedon The television show aired on the… Continue reading Firefly, Serenity and Exploitation
Fans, Fandom and Participatory Cultures
Another interesting aspect of Crowdfunding is that it is a type of “participatory culture.” People have to participate in order for the campaigns to succeed. No campaign can work without the crowd. Why should we discuss participatory culture? Because one must understand how people in a fandom participate within its culture to really understand why… Continue reading Fans, Fandom and Participatory Cultures
Fan Labor Back in the Golden Age
Back during the Golden Age of Hollywood, some of the first fan clubs were created and with them fan labor. In Samantha Barbas’ book, Movie Crazy: Fans, Stars, and the Cult of Celebrity (2001), she explains the beginning of fan clubs and fan contributions as early as 1910 through to the 1940s. She shares the… Continue reading Fan Labor Back in the Golden Age
Crowdsourcing: A Brief History
As I mentioned in the introduction, in 2005 journalist Jeff Howe coined the phrase “crowdsourcing.” Howe, along with his editor from WIRED Magazine, Mark Robinson, realized that businesses were soliciting on the Internet and outsourcing work to different individuals. Howe and Robinson came to the conclusion that those businesses were outsourcing to the crowd online,… Continue reading Crowdsourcing: A Brief History
Crowdfunding and Fandom: An Introduction Part II
In my research I have discovered that there are different models of crowdfunding. The platform wasn’t always called “crowdfunding.” In the early days (2005), it was called “crowdsourcing,” dully named by journalist Jeff Howe in an article he wrote for Wired Magazine (Wikipedia, 2015). The initial definition of crowdsourcing was “the process of obtaining needed… Continue reading Crowdfunding and Fandom: An Introduction Part II
Annotated Bibliography
1. Barbas, S. (2001). “Movie Crazy: Fans, Stars, and The Cult of Celebrity” FALGRAVE, St. Martin’s Press. Kindle Edition The fascination of Hollywood started from the beginning. In 1910 citizens who went to the picture show were enamored of the stars on the screen and the behind the scenes stories of how to make movies.… Continue reading Annotated Bibliography
